Disclaimer: I own nothing InuYasha.

Author Note: There's a lot of time jumps in this chapter, bear with me! I also got my laptop fixed finally! I have a lot of homework, which I'll do last minute, and shopping. So if I'm lagging that's why. I love you guys! Tell me what you think!

Tricky Business

Chapter Six

Sometimes we let the best parts of our life go because of fear. Either we're too afraid of getting hurt, or we're too afraid of how we might react. I didn't need another crack in my heart, and I didn't need to shoot another person. All I wanted was to be set free. I wanted to get away from here, and I would on my eighteenth birthday, and live somewhere where I could actually live. The life I was leading now was filled with caution. I shouldn't have to be thinking every second of Xavier and his constant watch on me. I cuddled up to Koga's sleeping form as I lay on his bed. How many things had he let go? How many times had fear overtaken his life? How many times had love?

His abdomen was bundled up tightly, the result the bullet had caused. It was stained pink with blood that was seeping through, a shot to kill, but it wasn't fatal. I put my hand gently over it, hoping the warmth would make it feel somewhat better. He moved in his sleep and ended up pulling me into his chest, since I had crawled in and rested on his arm. He'd been asleep for hours, and I was starting to get worried. They had put him under anesthetics so he'd fall asleep during the bullet-removing operation but he was still out. I hoped he was sleeping all of his pain away. I hear yelling out in the hallway and my senses jumped to attention as my eyes intently watched the door.

I soon relaxed though. I knew that voice. Another voice, this one sounding as chipper as ever, spoke as loudly as ever in an annoyed voice. "InuYasha, didn't you hear the girl? She said visiting times were over. You're just going to have to see Ayame another day. I'm sure she's fine. It can't be that life threatening if Kane was there with her through the whole night. You know how protective he is."

Nonetheless, InuYasha busted into Koga's room and flicked the lights on. I raised a finger to my lips, to signal that he should be quiet. Then I began the whispering. "Koga got shot, must have been accidental, and he's still out from the surgery but he should be okay."

"Where had you been that you had gotten shot?" InuYasha growled and raised an eyebrow. "You were obviously there with him if you were the one to get him to the hospital quick."

Was InuYasha seriously jealous? His eyes were blazing as they looked at Koga and me laying all over him. Had he not been catching up on well deserved sleep under such horrible conditions I would have sucked this moment up, absorbing every minute that InuYasha was jealous of Koga, and Kagome was jealous of me. I turned my attention to Koga when I saw his eyelids fluttering, and noticed he had woken up. I sighed and he shielded his face, looking over dumbly at me because he didn't know what was pinning his one arm down.

"You okay?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah." He croaked in a strained voice before looking at his other two visitors. "I'm fine except for that damned light."

"Koga, thank God, I've been so worried about you!" Kagome squealed as she scurried over after flicking off the lights and dramatically hugging him. She barely started when I pushed her off quickly. "What the hell Ayame?"

I glared. "You were hurting him Kagome!"

-0-0-0-0-

"You didn't have to push her away, you know." Koga remarked as we started to leave the hospital. The other two had left last night, shortly after they arrived. "It was nice to know that somebody cared about me and was worried sick the whole night." His response was cold and I turned to look at him. He looked back at me and I didn't want him to see the hurt in my eyes so I looked away. I wouldn't tell him that Kagome hadn't spent the whole night there, like I had, I wouldn't tell him that she thought I was the one who was hurt and wasn't too concerned, and I sure as hell wouldn't tell him that Kagome was just putting on a show. He loved her and I wanted him to believe whatever made him feel best. He was going to be biased either way, why try to ruin it for him?

"I'm sorry; it was more of just reaction than anything." I mumbled. I did feel bad. He didn't want me laying there with him, he wanted Kagome. But that was okay, because I didn't like Koga. I mean, he had never been overly nice. He never went out of his way to thank me or anything. He was pretty rude to me almost every chance he got. He didn't even thank me for being there to take him to the hospital. It was whatever, I loved InuYasha. I checked my cell phone and seen a new message, along with seventy-three missed phones calls. It started ringing again and I picked up. "Hey Ami, what's up?... Oh my God! I definitely forgot!" I slammed the phone shut and ran to my car, dragging Koga with me. "I forgot about my cheerleading competition. We need to hurry!"

I sped my way home and quickly jumped in the shower, letting my hair pin straight for the day. I threw on my cheerleading uniform, the back up one, which I had purchased just in case, and threw on makeup. With my hair in a ponytail, and plenty of hair and body glitter, I was ready to go. Koga leaned against my doorway and was looking at me intently, his eyes skimming over my exposed skin as I made sure I looked okay. He was cleanly out of the shower, his bandages wet and I sighed. I had ten minutes to spare before I had to leave. I reached in the bag the hospital had given me and began to undo his bandages, even as he protested. In five minutes, he was professionally wrapped in clean bandages. I sighed as I looked at the towel he was still holding around his waist. He'd had to borrow Kane's cloths, since I wasn't letting him out of my sight.

-0-0-0-0-

With fifth place, I wasn't satisfied. Our whole team had been near perfect but two girls had messed it up, badly. I was ready to kill, but I wouldn't of course. As leader of the competition team, I gave them a reassuring 'it's okay, we'll come back next time, I'm sure you girls just had a bad day'. Immediately they came back with excuses, like sleep deprivation and feeling sick. I kept myself from rolling my eyes and smiled through my hatred. It was the same girls that always gained us lower scores. At least we were still able to move on, going to the next competition and being able to compete.

"Hey, good job." A sexy voice snuck up behind me. I turned around to see Koga, slightly shocked that he had came down to visit me like InuYasha always had after hearing our places. I smiled and gave him thanks as all the girls began the giggling and whispering. Of course they'd be oogling the new boy I brought with me, and of course they'd conspire how to get him away from me and to them but it was okay. Koga wasn't my guy; he wasn't the one I wanted.

"Since the competitions over, how about we go shopping and get you something to eat? You've got to be starving. Are your bandages okay? Maybe we should rewrap them just in case. I don't want anything to go bad. Plus it could start healing skin over the bandage and then to get the bandage off I'd have to rip that skin that healed over it and it'd be horrible." I said all in one breathe as I worriedly eyed his abdomen. He laughed. It was the greatest thing I had ever seen. His perfectly white teeth were glistening (he had gotten a new spare toothbrush from us, but they were impossibly white so he had to have always taken good care of them) and his laugh was the sexiest sound. His intense eyes were sparkling with amusement and happiness. I couldn't help but giggle as I watched. Eventually, without realizing he had stopped, I noticed his face was not laughing anymore but just looking at me and smiling in this admiring way. I could feel my cheeks flush with embarrassment and I turned my gaze towards the ground.

"Is that your new boyfriend Ayame?" one of my team members, Destiny, yelled out. She was loud mouthed and rude, all above obnoxious. She wasn't even that pretty, and I wasn't one to call people ugly. She would have been prettier if her egotistical mannerless ways were changed. I wanted to claw her eyes out. She was an okay cheerleader, she wasn't as great as she thought she was. And she also thought she could have anybody and everybody that she wanted.

"No, he's just my friend. He's staying with me for right now." I replied.

"Well he's really sexy. If he wants my number, I'm single!" her voice screeched.

"Sorry but I'm already interested in somebody." Koga replied back. Kagome, she was the love of his life. I pitied him, I really did. It had to suck to have her all over somebody else, especially when that somebody else is perfect, then come back and pretend to want him. She'd only leave him in the end, and that was the sad truth. Kagome wasn't meant to settle down, she could hardly grow up. At least I thought. Then I got a text message from InuYasha, inviting me and Koga to dinner, as well as Sango.

-0-0-0-0-

Everything that had to do with Kagome needed to be fancy, so I told everybody that they'd need to dress up in formal clothes. This was another chance to steal InuYasha over, since I wouldn't need to worry about Koga. I pulled a sparkling aqua-green dress from my closet. It was high on my thighs and dipped down at the chest, but not too low. I slapped sparkling aqua-green peep-toe heels on my feet, sexy ones that were made specifically for the outfit, and threw an aqua blue ribbon in my hair, for a headband that had a little bow off to the one side. With my long locks of hair, I curled them into sexy ringlets.

Diamond jewelry accented the outfit and completed my look. The necklace, the belly ring that nobody could see, the bracelet, the ankle bracelet, the earrings, and the nose ring stud. I observed myself proudly in the mirror. The three hours it took had meant two and a half on hair, since it was so long and thick.

Sango was in a strapless black dress that tightly fit her thin, but fit, figure. Sango was all about sports, so her body was mostly just muscle. She didn't have a large chest, but it worked out for her since she was just as petite as me. The dress stopped high on her thighs, like mine did, and was accompanied by plain black heels. She wasn't much for fashion so she didn't feel the need to have color but I made her put a thin pink belt around her waist, along with matching pink heels. She agreed and it made the outfit ten times better.

She preferred her look without any jewelry, which I knew I couldn't change, and a simple clean bun in her hair. She was pairing a sexy fashionable outfit with a proper and classy hairstyle. I felt like the party girl but, then again, I always did. My mostly soccer-centered friend smiled as she looked at me. "You're gorgeous Ayame, you'll have him by the end of tonight."

Should I have felt bad about trying to steal InuYasha away from Kagome? Probably, but she had her fair share of relationships with the guys I dated, swearing that she only slept with some of them because she thought we had been broken up. I was a proud virgin; I couldn't say that much about Kagome. Yet she didn't look like a slut. She was extremely flirty but by her genuinely sweet personality towards most, and her bouncy ways, most people forgot about how many guys she had been with.

As I looked in the mirror more and more, I became less sure that I would be successful in winning InuYasha. What would he really see in me? A skinny little nobody cheerleader with an amplified chest who had issues and needed to grow up? The face on my face couldn't be beat. There was a reason he picked Kagome over me. She was beautiful. As beautiful as they got.

As I heard a limousine pull up, and Richy scurried to the door to be ready for their arrival upon the door. I sighed. It was now or never. Sango looked at me with a look that asked me if I was ready. I smiled and nodded. We grabbed hands and made our way outside the door and down the stairs. Koga was already waiting at the bottom of the steps, looking as handsome as ever. I noticed his eyes flowing at my legs and I was praying to God that he couldn't see up my short dress. I hadn't even thought about it until now.

Sango and I were at the bottom of the stairs when the couple and an extra friend walked in. Kagome and InuYasha were together of course, but they had brought a good looking guy with them. I thought I heard Sango mumble something hateful under her breath but I couldn't tell for sure. The boy spoke up, eyeing both of us hungrily. "Which one of these beautiful ladies will be my date for tonight?"

"Her," Koga stepped up next to me, "because Ayame's my date for the night. Dating as friends of course, and nothing else though." He clarified quickly after calling me his date. He didn't want to really take claim to being my date, which hurt, but he didn't want Kagome to think he had gotten over her either and that was completely understandable. He then threw in. "You look so gorgeous tonight Ayame, it's not even real."

There was something different in his eyes, some change of emotion. I didn't quite know what to think of it, but I went along with it nonetheless. "Thanks Koga, you look amazing."

"Are you guys ready?" Kagome asked impatiently. It was obviously annoying her. And maybe that was the purpose of the whole thing Koga was doing, to annoy both Kagome and InuYasha. It was sure as hell working. He swept me up into a bridal carry as I giggled and wrapped my arms around his neck (it had been reaction, I didn't even need to pretend) and carried me outside. Sango gave me a shocked look and I shrugged.

It felt so nice to be in Koga's big strong arms, I imagined it'd feel even better in InuYasha's, since I actually had feelings for him. Koga didn't even put me down as he slid into the limo, keeping me on his lap. I could see Kagome and InuYasha's eyes blazing. It made me snuggle up to 'my knight in shinning armor' even more. The ride there was practically killing the two. Kagome grabbed onto InuYasha and started to kiss him. I was pretty sure I died a little more on the inside. I felt Koga's grip on me tighten, just for a little squeeze. I frowned up and he gave me a sympathetic look. It wasn't his fault though.

Sango was obviously not getting along with Miroku either. She kept her arms cross and gaze averted to the window. She wanted nothing to do with the boy and I couldn't figure out why. Although a little much on the creeper side, he seemed charming and he was definitely cute.

After an hour at the restaurant, and a whole bunch of fraud flirting later, our meals came. I was practically dying, ready to get a shovel instead of the meek utensils they gave us, and fill myself up. The salad and bread were good, but not when it took them this long and both Koga and I were running on empty stomachs.

"Before we start, I'd like to do something." InuYasha called attention to the entire table. He slid his chair out and stood up, before pushing it back in. He walked over to Kagome's seat, pulled it out a little and turned it towards him, and knelt to one knee. "Kagome Higurashi, you make me the happiest man in the world and I don't know what I'd do with out you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. There's nobody sweeter or more beautiful. Will you marry me?" He pulled out this little black box from his tux and opened it to reveal a huge sparkling diamond ring. Too big for my taste, way too big, but that was how Kagome liked things.

I felt my breath hitch in my throat. I was pretty sure I couldn't breathe. My stomach was turning inside and doing flips. From under the table somebody squeezed my hand. I felt dizzy, turning to the person while my world spun. Koga was giving me a concerned look, as if he cared. I whipped my head around to Sango, ringlets smacking me in the face. She had the same look on as Koga. I looked down at my food. I wanted to curl up in a small ball and cry my eyes out. Suddenly, I wasn't so hungry.

Everything I knew just went out the window. I know I can't depend on you, forever. - Busted